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Melvin faces former team in Harden's debut

Jul 1, 2011 - 5:31 PM (Sports Network) - There will be plenty of handshakes and well wishes being exchanged tonight at the Coliseum.

Oakland manager Bob Melvin faces his former Arizona team, while Athletics starter Rich Harden makes his first start with the club in almost three years in the opener of a three-game set with the Diamondbacks.

Melvin managed the Diamondbacks from 2005-09, helping the club to a first- place finish in 2007. He had been hired as Arizona's special baseball advisor to team president and chief executive Derrick Hall earlier this season before taking over the Athletics coaching position on an interim basis for the fired Bob Geren on June 9.

Melvin helped mold some of Arizona's current young stars, including Justin Upton, who says his team needs to say focused against their former skipper.

"That's who I came up playing for, and the relationship is there. But at the same time, he wants to win, and so do we," Upton told MLB.com. "We are going to go in there and battle, and win every game that we can."

Melvin, meanwhile, will be keeping his eye on Harden, who makes his season debut after beginning the season on the disabled list because of a strained right lat muscle.

Harden began his career with Oakland in 2003 and went 36-19 with a 3.42 earned run average in 97 games (89 starts) with the club. He pitched his last game with the Athletics on July 6, 2008 before being dealt to the Cubs. He remained with Chicago through the 2009 season and pitched with Texas a season ago before signing a one-year, $1.5 million deal to return to Oakland.

Injuries have always highlighted Harden's career and he appeared in just 16 games with Oakland from 2006-07 due to back, elbow and shoulder issues. The 29-year-old righty gave up three runs and struck out 12 over 7 2/3 innings and two starts with Triple-A Sacramento and the A's opted against him making a third rehab start.

"We felt like at 90 [pitches], we can keep him," Melvin told Oakland's website. "That's a good number for us. We want him healthy, and he is healthy right now. The people that have the eyes on him feel like he was throwing well at this point. Rather than send him out one more time and get him to 110, we're comfortable with where he's been at this point."

Harden has faced the D-Backs just once before and took the loss on July 21, 2008 while with the Cubs despite giving up just one run and striking out 10 over seven innings.

Oakland will look to get a spark from Harden after dropping a 5-4 decision to Florida on Thursday for its sixth loss in eight games following a six-game winning streak. Coco Crisp and Kurt Suzuki hit late homers, but starter Trevor Cahill allowed five runs -- four earned -- over 4 2/3 innings.

"My stuff wasn't sharp," said Cahill.

The day was also highlighted by the trade of well-liked infielder Mark Ellis to Colorado. Ellis became expendable due to the emergence of second baseman Jemile Weeks after spending his entire nine-year career in the majors with Oakland.

Arizona, meanwhile, comes to town having lost four of its last five games to fall two contests back of first-place San Francisco in the National League West. The Diamondbacks lost the rubber match of a three-game set to the Indians on Wednesday by a 6-2 margin.

Upton and Stephen Drew each belted a solo home run in the loss, while starter Zach Duke yielded four runs over five innings.

"I just didn't put the ball where I wanted to today," Duke said. "I'll have to be better next time."

The Diamondbacks begin a 10-game road trip that carries them into the All-Star break, which Arizona will host, and hope that right-hander Josh Collmenter can avoid a fourth straight loss tonight.

The 25-year-old rookie has pitched to a 7.00 ERA over his skid and his last outing was the worst of the bunch. Collmenter gave up career highs of six runs and 10 hits over six innings on Saturday at Detroit, falling to 4-4 in 16 games (nine starts) this season. His ERA stood at 1.12 before his skid but now resides at 2.71.

Arizona has won seven of its last nine versus the A's, including two of three when the clubs last met at Oakland in 2009.